Everything Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama's 20-9 win over LSU

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 4 Alabama defeated LSU, 20-9, on Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After the Crimson Tide’s eighth straight win of the season, head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters. Below is everything DeBoer said in his postgame press conference.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“It’s always good to get a W. Definitely not satisfied with the way we played at times. Made enough plays to win. But certainly got to continue to improve. We got to get back to work tomorrow. Our guys know that. Proud of the defense, holding them to field goals. Four red-zone attempts and walking away with nine points, it’s a great job by those guys. Penalties, like what I see there. And then won the turnover battle, so obviously a big play there at the end. And just there’s plays out there we got to make, and that will help a lot of our offense. And defensively, I thought we fought for four quarters. And so quietly, just going out there, taking care of business and really locked in on anything that we might have saw that was a little bit different. But for the most part, we find a way to win, and that’s what matters.”

DeBoer on if the defense has turned a corner…

“I feel like they’ve been playing pretty solid. Whether it’s turned a corner, I feel like they keep getting better. Last week, I think there were some things, we gave up an explosive on one play, and I thought we were stingy at times. They got a short field last week — two weeks ago, I guess — against South Carolina. But I think there is a mindset that they have. I think there’s a mindset that is built on trust, and guys are doing their job. There’s less of the explosive plays where one guy makes a mistake, doesn’t fit a gap. We’re seeing less and less of that. And so, again, just doing your job, understanding how to play certain blocks, knowing where your help’s at, leveraging, and then guys getting the ball. 

“They have a mindset right now where if they hustle, they will end up creating breaks. We just missed a couple opportunities, I think, with the ball on the ground or ball getting tipped in the air. And so, we’ll keep making those plays. And they’re timely, at the end of the game and early in the game, to give us a little cushion there at the beginning. So, I like the way that they play. I like their mindset. I’m confident they’ll go back to work again tomorrow.”

DeBoer on the defense in critical moments…

“I think, again, when the turnover happened tonight and they get put in that spot where it is a short field, they did it. Again, they did a nice job. Even got inside the 10, if I remember right. And we just keep reminding the guys to continue to make them snap it again. And our crowd comes and helps us out with getting some false starts. That’s huge. That was a problem for them the entire game. So, huge props to our fans for staying in there with us in the big moments and helping us out there. Our guys feed off that energy, and that puts the offense in a tough spot when they’re behind the sticks, especially in the red zone. 

“I think there’s times when we go for it on fourth down over the course of the year, and that’s me trusting the defense as much as I’m trusting the offense. And there’s times when they’ve had their back to the wall for whatever reason, a takeaway by the opponent, and they’ve just buckled down and settled in and trusting each other.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s run game…

“We only had 56 yards, so it needs to be better. And I think there’s a lot of things. I think there’s other things we can do to make the defense have to cover us. And we missed opportunities that would help open up the box a little bit. But we certainly, either one of two things on each play is do a better job blocking and then do a good job of being physical with the ball in our hands, too, and then falling ahead for yards. Those extra one or two yards, three yards that you can get by running through arm tackles and things like that, those can hurt.

“And so, again, we’ve got to do a better job giving lanes for the running back to go hit it confidently and hit it hard. It’s everything. It’s an effort across the board. When we run on the perimeter, let’s make sure we get the blocks out there. But yeah, we certainly got to be better than what we were.”

DeBoer on Ty Simpson’s assertiveness in calling a timeout on third down…

“Yeah, especially in the first half, but, I mean, really any time, you never want your quarterback snapping the ball if there’s anything that doesn’t feel right. And there was just something that didn’t feel right with who the line was pointing to, and I think with the clock coming down, he wanted to make sure that we were able to get our cleats in the dirt, everyone be on the same page. So, I thought it was a really smart play by him. Again, if a bad situation happens, we can’t make a bad situation worse, and he kept us out of that. And, again, like we said, made a throw, got the PI, and helped us score.”

DeBoer on if the atmosphere felt like a rivalry game…

“Oh, yeah. I mean, our guys just knew that we were going to get a team that if they were in the fight, they were going to stay in the fight. We understand what we were up against, and, that’s the way we treated it. And I think our guys practiced hard. I know they practiced hard. And there’s just some things where we can do better to separate ourselves in the third quarter when we have a chance to put a game away. And there’s been a couple games now where we haven’t done that, and that’s what we’ve got to get better at.”

DeBoer on the downfield throws; the impact of Lotzeir Brooks being back…

“I think to answer really both questions with one, I think that throw to Lottie at the end of the half was huge. Again, some momentum going to the locker room. We knew they were going to get the ball to start the third quarter. Really no timeouts for us, and for us to go down the field that quickly, Ty and Lottie seemed to hook up when we were the most covered. And so, that’s a great play by those guys. And then, again, the throw to Ty for the touchdown there at the end of the half, that was huge, too.

“So Lottie, there was a tackle he broke, I saw at the end of the game. You all saw it, and he just has that knack with the ball in his hands, and he adds an element of explosiveness to the team. He’s huge on special teams, as well. I think that’s the part that he started with at the beginning of the season, what he can bring to special teams, whether it’s return game or punt, kickoff, all those areas. He’s an explosive player. 

“As far as overall, throwing the ball down the field, we haven’t been as consistent as I think we can be. We’ve got the players to do it, and it’s just a fine line — a ball just off the fingertips, timing not quite there. So, we’ve got to continue to work at that. We’ve shown we can do it.”

DeBoer on the difficulty of preparing for an interim-led team…

“We just acknowledge the fact that that could happen, and that we were going to get their best. Again, a rivalry game, this situation that we’re facing and what it was. But in the end, we needed to focus on us, and that’s what we really challenged our guys to do the last two weeks was focus on us and keep taking the steps moving forward. Again, we want to improve each and every week. We certainly have room where we can continue to get better. 

“And that’s the disappointing thing but also the exciting thing. Disappointed that we fell short in some areas but also excited that I know they’re correctable, and I know that some of the things we can do better will help us win games and be better than what we were out there. So, we continue to move on. We continue to keep the focus on that principle in our program of continuing to chase the improvement.”

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